Splintered, not stirred: Splinter Cell was originally pitched as a James Bond game
Comments1
Splinter Cell has gone through a lot of changes since the first game in 2002, but none as significant as the changes that took place before it became the franchise we know. Yannis Mallat, CEO at Ubisoft Montreal spills the beans to IGN.
It was originally conceived as a retro-sci-fi shooter called The Drift, but it lacked soul even though it had some of the mechanics - like different vision modes and modular guns - that would make its way into Splinter Cell. Development struggled thanks to an inexperienced team with big ambitions and the project was close to being shelved.
Then it was pitched as a James Bond game in a desperate attempt to rescue it.
Valve fire out first wave of Steam Music beta invites, consider taking on iTunes
Comment
With a distant, somehow funky boom, Valve’s pulse cannon signals the initial salvo of invites to Steam Music - the local ditty-player that’ll come as standard with SteamOS. Beta feedback will determine, among other things, whether Valve expands its music library beyond game soundtracks.
New Developers Report No Payments From Strategy First
By John Walker on February 5th, 2014 at 10:00 am.
The day before yesterday a game appeared on Steam. Not a peculiar thing. Yesterday it was gone from Steam. A peculiar thing. The game was Paper Monsters, by developers Mobot Studios/Crescent Moon Games, which came out in 2012, published by the oft-troubled Strategy First. Crescent Moon had no idea the Steam publication was happening. With a new version of the game having just cleared Greenlight, and due to release this Summer, they had no intentions of seeing the older game on Valve’s store. It wasn’t until another developer asked them why the game was now on sale that they learned of it. And then learned that it had been put there by Strategy First – the publisher they tell us they had a contract with that stipulated no Steam publication, and indeed the publisher they say has yet to pay them at all.
And they’re not the only ones.
Signs Of Life Has Signs Of Life, Such As MechaChickens
By Graham Smith on February 5th, 2014 at 9:00 am.
Another partly procedural Terarrialike about spaceships, planet surfaces, building and exploration? I was about to pass Signs of Life right by, till I saw its page of GIFs. These a degree to which its world and character animation is extremely awkward. There’s also a degree to which that awkwardness makes its sheep, chickens and protagonist in cut-off jeans seem extremely cute.
Signs of Life just launched on Steam Early Access, and there’s a trailer below.
Let Slip The Whals of Star: Starwhal Releases Very Soon
By Alec Meer on February 5th, 2014 at 8:00 am.
First Nidhogg finally became a reality for all and sundry, and now Starwhal has decided upon a release date too. It’s quite the month-ish for offbeat, high-skill melee games. Two-to-four-player, QWOPish, psychedelic whale-battler Starwhal: Just The Tip has gone from gamejammed quickie to decent Kickstarter success to A Thing That Is Being Released On February 17.
Put your horns in the air to celebrate. Missus.
Read the rest of this entry »
Borderlands 2 DLC coming in time for Valentine's Day, next pack to be the last
Borderlands 2’s next DLC, Mad Moxxi and the Wedding Day Massacre, arrives with next week’s console update and just in time for Valentine’s Day.
Mighty No. 9: live-action film in the works
Mighty No. 9 may have even more in common with Mega Man than you think, as it’s also getting a live-action movie treatment courtesy of Mortal Kombat: Legacy producer Tim Carter.
BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea - Episode 2 DLC to last up to six hours
BioShock Infinite’s next story DLC, Burial at Sea – Episode 2, will last up to six hours on a completionist run through, according to a tweet from Ken Levine. This news should please those who found the first episode at bit short; even exploring thoroughly, it was only a couple of hours long. We don’t […]
@TheVoxelman on twitter
